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While not strictly a 'wearable' cozzie I thought this was probably the best place to put this thread ...(mods feel free to play!)...

Cad bane has some of these boys for backup in a couple of episodes as well as their constant deployment with the rest of the clankers...and finally Ive pulled my finger out and put the build thread together !

...Cant think where I got this kit from...

... got a distinct feeling there may be more though

So ... still ironing out a few last niggles like sourcing stuff that would need to be sent out with this kit and seemed easy to find yet wasnt!

The main kit consists of parts cast by some insane madman with no life ... and only a cat to help ...
...its in tough POLY URETHANE resin and is hollow /roto cast so is designed to be sturdy and light weight ...

heres the basic parts..

...as you can see , this is the main set of bits comprising a main neck, rear neck , neck joint dome , vocoder and head.
These are fresh from the mould and will be trimmed up .

So.. on to trimming and filling ...
trimming was done with files, motor tool and sanding bits , fettling bits ... then the basic glitch clean up with car filler /bondo was done ... not to much to actually repair here ... a few areas with micro air bubbles , few more in sharp edges etc ... heres a shot with the raw bondo on...

and then a few holes need to be drilled /fettled out ....

first the hole in the head socket ...

next a hole in the top of the neck ...

both are finished up like this..

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Next i test fitted the neck parts ..

and the plate that closes off the jaw aperture ... this is hand cut from sheet material (which just happens to be clear as its what I had to hand ).. hopefully this will be supplied with the kit ...

notice the filler in the snout opening ... this was repairing an air bubble problem and is best from inside BEFORE final trimming so when you do fettle it you are machining into filler and not air!
Also the ledge that supports the back edge of this plate needed some filler repair due to airlocks in the rubber .
A strip of plastic was taped in place and filler was built up against it on the inside .

Next we have the vocoder in position for a test fit ...

This is one separate unit that forms an access hatch under the head ....(these 2 bits get stuck together like this but not to the head)

Along with drilling a hole as marked for the eye LEDs you drill a hole in the lowest corner of the eye socket nearest the neck socket .This then takes a piece of welding rod or similar that will take a bit of force yet not bend ... when drilling you need to drill just up from the edge so you can angle the drill as iff to line up with the other eye ... takes a bit and will need fiddling with to get a loose-ish fit that gets bonded into place with filler.
Meanwhile , a similar operation got done in the base of the neck ...

I used heavier bar for this but as long as it doesnt collapse under slight weight / pressure anything will do .
The reason for the bars , all 3 , as there is a third through the neck ball (neck top)side to side ,(not shown in pics)is to anchor and guide the ELASTIC (yup I said elastic !)... this enables the head to have an operational ball joint that is tensioned enough to be posable yet remain light while not having enough of a socket to actually 'capture' the neck ball in .
The path of the elastic will come in later ...

Also , if you refer to the picture of the first bondo-ing ... the neck joint dome has a 'T' nut bondoed into it after having a hole drilled in its centre ... this enables a stand with a bolt through it to be firmly attached as in the test head shots .You can see the bolt sticking out of the joint dome in the background .

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When the vocoder is mounted to the plate and tidied up I fitted neob... neyoby....nyo.......nirb....er... RARE EARTH MAGNETS ... to the ledge in the head and the jaw plate .

...and it works...

Then , when everything was tidied up whack on some primer , de glitch any last niggles , prime again and wallop in some SIMONIZ 5 WHEEL STEEL... GUNMETAL ... should be around 3.75 quid for a BIG can ... good stuff !...same as IG .

next , a quick skip over all the edges with maskol ... latex masking solution (Ive heard of people using marmite and mayonaise )... this was applied with the WRONG end of a small brush ...ie the handle , or side of it in a rolling fashion .

Now for the eye lenses ....
These are cut from clear plastic using my patented method with a circle cutter BACKWARDS... bit labor intensive ... am looking at options but could supply a few pairs with kits .
Then a strip of plastic around 1mm thich and 6mm wide is lightly tacked to the lens so there is no glue smearing .

This next image shows the LEFT end of the eye bar processed to match the contour of the lens ... this is done with a small file and the bar is given a slight bevel inwards ... the bar itself has been sanded and edge finished with a small sanding block before attachment .

The right hand end is un processed...

The lenses were masked with SCOTCH TAPE and along with everything else airbrushed with HUMBROL ENAMELS ...the colour took a while to get right , but was easy when I just used straight matt red and a light blue mixed .

This is the colour of the BX when they are first seen in 'ROOKIES'.... some shots of the droid show it to be very purple ish while others make it out more brown ... the majority , and accounting for light environments came out this kind of shade ... looks purpley brown ... kinda like the action figures are done! and as this one was going to be the officer I also masked off and airbrushed matt white on for the markings

...And when the masking was removed.....

g

The thinking being this... car paint is tougher than enamels so with the gunmetal as a base and enamels over it you can errode through to the base coat with gentle abrasion ......
..like with a scouring pad...

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After a little careful wear an tear.....

Now for final assembly ....the neck was test fitted ... now , the neck ball is SUPPOSED to be a VERY loose fit in the socket , this is to allow the ball to be gripped by foam furniture pads ... 2 smallish ones either side and a bigger one round the hole into the head . These provide friction and stop wear and tear on the ball while giving smooth movement ... got the idea from DALEKS!

(You DONT want to know the more extensive use I have planned !....spoilers!.. ..)

The problem arises when the head sometimes is a little tight ... this is remedied by heating up the underside with a hair dryer and flexing the underside of the head outward from inside to widen the socket ...did have a small split here ... nothing that didnt take 30 seconds to fix though .

Thickness of the parts cannot be guaranteed so thin bits do occur randomly even with the strict quality control the cat put them through !

(pissing in them and seeing where leaks!?! ....JOKE!)...

Least I dont think he did that ....

Heres the view of the elastic in place ...
Basically you feed the elastic up through the hole in the base of the head , fiddle for a while to get it over the rod between the eyes and back down out of the same head hole .
Then both ends go down the neck making sure they both go TO THE REAR of the rod in the ball at the top of the neck ... this prevents the head from pulling down at the front all the time and evens the tension .
Next , the elastic goes out of the base of the neck assembly , EITHER SIDE of the neck base rod as this will be what keeps tension .
You stretch the elastic and grip the two cords with mole grips ... stretch it as much as you think you need , lock the grips and try the movement ... your looking for a decent amount of tension/ ressistance with no spring back .
Then take it a tad more ...lock the grips and do the knot of your life!

When you recover from that , get yer neck joint dome , the edge should have been fettled up and test fitted over the neck base , and when yer happy with everything glue it on making sure there IS a gap all round and that it is EVEN .
The best ref for this is the shot of a separate BX head being held up to a door scanner in ROOKIES.
Put it this way .... if the parts are trimmed up correctly it will sit on just right !

I gave everything a subtle rub with the scourer pad and a very soft sanding block(foam one)then went for an unsubtle black brownish acrylic wash , ... washed on dabbed off with kitchen roll and stroked into directional patterns (brushstrokes)with a clean house painting brush ..
The paint job gets a little klunky here ... BUT you have to remember ... this is emulating for the real world an ANIMATED style .. wear is exaggerated ... all surfaces have a kind of darker and lighter coating of the same shade in CW ...I read they try to give everything a look as though it is a 'painted' surface ... this in conjunction with the fact that the entire look of the series is based on McQuarries art style ... so CW is McQuarrie the series!
When you factor this in the look of CW comes to life ... personally I love it though in some cases the 'look' doesnt quite work and may look awful to some especially those who havent seen it ...for example ...
The 'copper' sections on the BX (commando droid).... these are meant to be 'greasy copper' in colour but look a bit wood like in the animation!...it wasnt till I heard what the parts were supposed to be that I stopped thinking the wood thing.
One basic worry is that someone un initiated may think a five year old painted it!.
Clone armour has been done successfully in the animated style (build and colourwise)but is considerably easier on the paint front .theres one colour erroded through to another shade on a white base whereas the BX surfaces in reality can just look 'badly' painted,... so the whole thing is a bit of a trade off .

The copper on the vocoder was quickly drybrushed on then masked before the 'purple' was sprayed ..I actually applied the copper OVER a base of ROMAN BRONZE left over from the dalek tommy guns ...NICE result !... straight on the money for what I was looking for !

And heres a finished shot !... well I say finished .. theres no electrics yet as apparently theres ashortage of the right led in maplins and so the lenses arent glued in yet ... but Im pleased ....

The stand I had already and is routered MDF with a 6mm bolt through the middle .. I like the way it looks like its balancing on the dome joint

Now just have to train a gang of five year olds to weather 'em up for me

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And then of course ... theres the OTHER reason there is a nut in the base of the neck.... (spoilers!)

... but thats a story for another day kiddies!... now get off to bed and have nightmares about being overrun by BX TYPE COMMANDO DROIDS!

Heres a few more shots from the testing of the lighting to the finished item ... all ready to get presented to its new owner!

Heres a newly finished stealth custom special...

a couple of the paint job underway...
the head has been primed and based in gunmetal then liquid masking applied round every sharp edge , the animated look has probably a more heavily worn appearance than reality but these really come alive when the masking comes off so Ive always liked it.

The base is 5 WHEEL STEEL GUNMETAL car spray ... this is hard wearing and gets left for a couple of days to harden fully , then , after masking , HUMBROL matt black mixed with a dark blue gloss tint was airbrushed all over in a couple of coats and left to dry over night .Next ,a loose mask of cereal box card was used , held to the surface (tricky with only 2 hands!)and the pale grey/blue sprayed carefully along the edge of the exposed areas , the main shapes are then sprayed in once the edges are established and the whole thing left to dry for a few hours .

Stealth markings ... this took a bit of thought , I wanted subtle markings , stylized skull like as a base idea , that wouldnt detract from the shape overall , eventually ,this was the shape I went with....
...here the liquid masking has been removed by rubbing carefully with a fresh scourer pad , this can be used hard or soft to distress and polish the paint into a worn appearance , as the top coats are ENAMEL they are not as hard wearing as the GUNMETAL spray so errode through.
The vocoder was sprayed as part of the head then , when dry , drybrushed in a dark copper and black enamel with a brighter copper faded in over the top also drybrushed. I made the copper overall darker than previous paintjobs so it fitted the 'stealth' look and didnt jump out to much.

..And so , onto the finished item!
Here you can just see the 'brushstroke' effect that is from the scourer...